Dealing with Trauma

The vast majority if not all of us have at one point or another experienced some form of behavioral issue in our classroom. From my own personal experience, one of the most common points of commiseration among teachers, and one faced widely by those of us in urban school systems in particular (such as Baltimore City and County) that have high rates of minority students, is that of behavioral challenges in school. As a chronic issue, it is one that deserves to be considered under the lens of school reform. If we use suspension rates as a proxy for behavior, we see that urban districts have higher than average amounts of “misbehavior.” While the average suspension rate in counties across Maryland is 6.8% of students (46% persons of color statewide), with Montgomery County and Howard County coming in at lows of 2.6% and 3.3% respectively, Baltimore City’s 2010-2011 year showed a rate of 9.1% of students suspended at one point or another (72% persons of color citywide) (Baltimore Sun - Suspensions)(Maryland Demographics). And, to be frank, not all of the students that I personally might have recommended for suspension were ultimately suspended, and I know that the case was similar for many others.

But why is it that students are suspended, or “misbehave,” at higher rates in metropolitan areas, and where there are higher rates of minority students? The National Child Traumatic Stress Network reports that one out of four children in the United States will experience a traumatic event before the age of 16 (Curtin, 2008). However, Parson (1994 - link to pdf) found that black children in the inner city experience traumatic events at more than 3 times the rate of children nationally, with 84% of elementary students saying that they had seen someone physically assaulted.

There may be a correlation between trauma and suspension rates, but then the question of how effective suspensions are in actually decreasing “misbehavior” in schools and classrooms is asked. The answer is disheartening. Jane Ellen Stevens, in a recent article on the Huffington Post, reports that one suspension triples the likelihood of a child becoming involved with the juvenile justice system, and doubles that child's likelihood of repeating a grade. And then when it comes to the classroom, it was rarely my experience that students were better behaved, motivated, or adjusted when they returned from their suspension.

So what is an acceptable alternative to suspending chronically “misbehaved” students who may be dealing with some form of trauma?

Trauma-informed improved plans are a new way of addressing these issues. School districts in Massachusetts, Washington, and other states have begun to adopt such plans which include courses for teachers on how to teach traumatized children; whole-community involvement in informing schools about and responding to students who have experienced trauma; and the positive behavior interventions program.

As communities continue to change, it is impossible for students to learn and for teachers to teach if the students’ basic needs are not met. Providing outlets and productive alternatives to punishing “misbehaved” children should ever be towards the top of the school reform agenda. 

Links:

Main Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-ellen-stevens/traumasensitive-schools-part-two_b_1632126.html?utm_hp_ref=education 

PBIS: http://www.pbis.org/school/default.aspx

Trauma-Sensitive Schools: http://www.istss.org/source/stresspoints/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newsletter.showThisIssue&Issue_ID=80&Article_ID=1353

Inner City Children of Trauma Report PDF: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CGcQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.giftfromwithin.org%2Fpdf%2Fparson.pdf&ei=1u3wT9nvKKGC6QGwvvG6Bg&usg=AFQjCNFexXFOKaSLAUc_fV44nIYOyUDphQ&sig2=1PSiMfzwO_pRXmF0tHSOmw

Demographics: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html

Baltimore Sun- Suspensions: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-25/news/bs-md-co-school-suspensions-20111225_1_suspension-issue-suspension-rate-stricter-discipline-codes

"More Kool Aid Please"

Is TFA making transformational change within the students or are those that participate in TFA are the ones that are transforming. The simple fact that most who transforming and making student academic gains, are few in number. It is one due to the lack of training to be an effective teacher. Secondly, it is the fact that most are just trying to improve self for their resume and not really in it for the cause and most leave after their two year commitment. Third, is that even though those that are TFA participants are great at being a student and learning does not mean that their academic success will transpire into the classroom with students that most do not relate to because are not from or have not experienced at least few of the hardships that the students they are required to teach have and are going through. Lastly,  is that there is a strong emphasis on leading adolescents and those that we are putting in the classroom have for the majority never had major responsibility of taking care of children, or being a leader outside of peers and are yet thrown into a situation that requires them to be an ADULT with students that are close to their own age, when most are still young themselves. I can imagine it being hard as a student to see such young teachers and have to look up to them as a role model and learn how to be an adult when there is only ten years difference in age between them. I mean people get married with ten years between the two of them.  I am not saying that makes a person less effective as a teacher, but some of the things that administrators look for is a leader or someone they can entrust to discipline and educate their students. To be honest most coming out of college just do not have it and actually have a hard time with the management piece of teaching and are not effective in their instruction. The key to first being able to make transformational change is to have command of the classroom and most are still figuring out themselves as adults, let alone becoming a disciplinarian, and just can’t completely do it. Not only that teachers actually have to be provided a solid educational foundation towards how to teach and in developing their teaching style, and that is not something that can happen after two years where most TFA step out of teaching; and furthermore, can not be done with the summer training for month and a half at institute.  From speaking to veteran teachers it really takes 3-5 years to figure out a management style that works for you followed by instruction that will make a teacher effective. TFA teachers mostly do not stay around long enough to learn how to be an effective teacher but a leader and commander of the classroom to be transformational. These school invest money in their training and the turnover or costs of helping these corp members are more then what the schools actually get out of those teaching. Not saying the TFA corp members are not motivated and not want to do well, but not most are in it for a career.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/deepening_the_debate_over_teac.html

http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Heilig_TeachForAmerica.pdf

Eventhough, teaching always requires much reflection in practice and being flexible and making changes, which can bring some changes it is hard to say it will be transformational. With most corp members leaving after their two years and a new set of teachers coming in, the system of change is still not healthy for students because there is no consistency with the people around them and since most of them leave, I am sure that transfers into negative thoughts for the students who were in their classrooms and return negatively affect their scores academically. With nearly 15 – 23% of the incoming corp members not completing their two year commitment and nearly 60% leaving after the two year commitment. When looking at the numbers only 23% stay after 5 years. Which these would be just classified as becoming effective teachers.  Yet, the experience gained by the corp member they are transforming into better adults by learning responsibility and gaining experience in planning and data analysis, they are mainly transforming themselves and not the students that are in their classroom, which was the main goal of TFA to provide a quality education to those students where the need is great in efforts of closing the achievement gap between students in affluent and low income areas.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-04-27/story/low-teach-america-retention-rate-examined-duval-embraces-program

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-indialogue/2012/04/deepening_the_debate_over_teac.html

The Charter School Debate Continues..

Many charter schools have impressively raised test scores and student acheivement in low-income neighborhoods traditionally served by failing schools. Charter schools (the good and the bad) are innovative. And, with all innovations, come with a handful of critiques.

In an article in The New York Times on June 25th, writer Michael Powell criticized a particular charter school in New York City, Harlem Success Academy 2. The Harlem Success Academy 2 is part of the larger network of Success Academy Charter Schools run by chief executive Eva S. Moskowitz. HSA has had many successes, risen test scores, and created a culture of success for its students. The public school that HSA shares a building with, PS 30, has failed to do this consistently. The two schools have been in conflict over receiving funds for a new playground. Moskowitz believe that the funds, and the playground, rightfully belong to HSA2. After all, that is the school that is achieving, and she is the one who raised the funds.

The article is decent, but it isn't a strikingly new or fascinating article. We have seen these stories before, where charter schools take away from the public school system. What struck me as interesting were the 59 and counting comments written by parents of students at HSA2, donors, community members, and people who genuinely dislike the system of charter schools developing in New York. I encourage you to read the comments. Skip the article; you've read many like it. The comments are genuine.

The majority of the bloggers wrote outcries in support of Moskowitz, and the culture of acheivement that she has created at HSA2. One parent wrote that they didn't have the time to leave a lengthy argument against Powell, because they were too busy helping their student complete the summer packet she wanted to do. Another parent wrote about how her student has developed into a critical thinker and has found their love for learning. Other bloggers did not share the same enthusiasm. They felt left out, angry, and frustrated because their students were not accepted into HSA.

The comments reflected the discussions we had in class about charter schools. Are charter schools a useful reform if they only improve the lives of a handful of students? Isn't it worth it for those students? Or, are charter schools a waste of public funds that could be used to improve the conditions of the public school system? Is there a way to make successful public charter schools accessible for all children? Or, would that diminish the glam factor of charter schools, making them less appealing?

 I would love to hear you opinions after reading some of the comments posted by parents of students at HSA2.

Here is the article, and the comments.

"It Takes A Village..."

“It takes a village to raise a child.” –African proverb

            After reading Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough and an article in The Washington Post entitled, “Does the NAACP think its okay to hit your kids?,” almost nothing is more clear to me than the proverb above. Children are products of their environment. When I say that I do not mean that they are passive sponges, but rather, they have the potential to rise or sink to the expectations and the norms with which become customary.  That is a main reason why Geoffrey Canada believes the best way to change the life outcomes for children is to revamp and restructure the entire environment so that it becomes “contaminated” with positive choices and behaviors. The hope is that the child has no other option, but to follow suit and jump on the productive life-path trail. This citywide transformation model confronts the fact that it is impossible for a single positive influencer to be in the presence of a child for every second of every day. Therefore, parents, teachers, caregivers, and community members as a whole, must be able to rely on everyone “in the village” to support the child in his or her journey to a prolific and healthy adulthood.

            Canada’s first solution to creating this safety net started with the parents in Baby College. In these classes he presented information, grounded in research, concerning parenting techniques that best promote social, emotional, and academic development. These practices were discovered to be advantageous for children in school and throughout their lives. The Baby College teachers promoted strategies that did not involve any type of corporal punishment. These strategies favored time-outs and taking away privileges over spankings, and beatings. As relayed by Tough, many parents had a hard time coming to terms with this knowledge, partly because violent punishments were the most feared and had the greatest impact on them during their respective childhoods. Yet, Canada felt that it was part of the responsibility of the Baby College to provide disciplinary instruction to parents in Harlem in the hopes that they will abandon physical punishments in favor of other methods.

            Does the NAACP have the power to demand the employment of these same disciplinary tactics across the nation, or is telling parents how to raise their children an issue outside of public authority? On Sunday, Stacey Patton reported a story in The Washington Post about a 15-year-old girl who called 911 on her father (a pastor) for choking and slapping her, and, as a result, he was arrested. The violence was orchestrated due to the disrespectful act of disobedience that the daughter executed by “arguing about attending a party that the father deemed off-limits.”  Does a legal governing body have the right to pass judgment on how a parent disciplines his or her child, or can we as a society draw a line on violent punishment because research has proven this is not beneficial to a child’s development? The verdict is up in the air for this particular case. Generally speaking, I am personally unsure where to draw the line. I think it is important to consider the effects that a community’s laws and norms have on the children and consequently the adults those children grow to be, but yet appreciate the privacy that parents desire. However, if, like Canada, the national aspiration is to create opportunities for all children to develop the best futures possible, maybe governing bodies and outside authorities should influence the techniques of parents, considering how large their role is in our village.

Number Zombies

When I was a child I assigned a number to everything.  I kept notes on how much fruit and how many vegetables I ate each day.  I created charts for different activities and skills.  Most importantly, I tracked play time with my peers.

Did I obtain 80% mastery on my daily nutrition chart? Check.

Was the way I swung on the swing proficient? Check.

Did I spend enough time running around with Billy, Susie and Betty? Check. Check. Check.

I was making AYP before it was in vogue.

Does this not seem awesome? On any day a kid was collecting purposeful data in a bid to rise up out of a living biography and claim his global inheritance of fulfillment in life.  Fulfillment of course being defined here as a series of numbers that seems to be leading to something so that I could move on and do something else.

Caught the sarcasm yet?

As a young teacher in the classroom I have made a few observations.  Of these observations, one really continues to draw my mental attention.  My students are constantly wondering if what they are learning is going to be on a quiz or test.  If I say no, which I never would, students relax and zone out.  If I say yes, they complain about the amount of information they need to learn and with uneasy looks on their faces attempt to plea with me for free time.  This is what educators before me have cultivated:  number zombies. Students care about the grade they achieve on a test and not so much about what they are learning or the process required to get there.

In education we play this huge numbers game.  Lately, this game has been fully focused on attaining AYP and having students pass the MSAs and HSAs in Maryland.  We track how students are progressing and what they are learning (though notably the focus tends to stay on reading and math).  This quantitative way of thinking is great – but is it making an excuse for educators to stop caring about the qualitative learning that should also be occurring?  

Think about it.  We ask our kids to learn the same, think the same, and test the same.  This past year I had class sizes of 32, 22, 29, 24, and 37 in the high school I teach at.  I do my best to follow the instructional model expected of me while also implementing partner and group activities, but the reality of  the situation is that students are stuck on a teacher-teaches, student-does model.  I bring up this point because it then becomes difficult to ensure that when I am not being a monolith in front of the class, I am constantly circling the room to put students on task.  I have grown, at times, frustrated with the pattern into which I have fallen.

I feel as if I am merely teaching so that students can prove themselves on the day-to-day objectives and therefore I have to assess them as such.  I struggle with this because it leaves me handcuffed to the curriculum and unable to craft lessons around many topics that I believe would be worth exploring in the classroom.  

This is not to be taken as a negative view of having a curriculum or of assessing the curriculum, but rather a commentary on how education in general is failing to view our students as humans.  I fear that we have become so obsessed with results and instant (read: superficial) gain that we ignore the humanistic elements in education.

According to the work of theorists like Maslow and Rogers, the idea of humanism concentrates on the development of students’ self-concepts.  If a student feels good about what they are learning and is feeling good about themselves (affective needs), then that student is starting off on the right page.  This allows a child to discern their own strengths and weaknesses and how to play on one’s strengths to improve overall.  Maslow terms this “self-actualization,” in which a student does not recognize learning as an end in itself, but rather as a means to progress towards the apex of self-development.  This cannot occur for every student at the same time, and yet that is what we expect.  We determine when students will take tests and when they will learn this or that.  When students are not as quick as their peers, we rush in an attempt to see if they require an IEP or 504 plan.  BUT - humans develop at different paces, we always have.

Therefore, what I am proposing is that we move towards an open –classroom system and an ecological methodology of learning.  (For more on the ecological systems theory, see The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design by Urie Bronfenbrenner.‎ (1979) or just read the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Systems_Theory).

An open-classroom system is one in which a teacher is more of a facilitator while a student is a researcher, creator, writer, thinker, doer, etc...  Let’s give students the opportunity to discover their own human worth, individuality, and the freedom to determine their own personal actions.  An open-classroom would remove the emphasis on attaining material goals and increase the skill set a student needs to be a productive contributor to an ever changing global society.

According to the philosopher Kirschenbaum, an open-classroom would have these traits:
                -Students exercise choice and control over activities   
                -Curriculum focuses on what the children are concerned about
                - Focus on life skills - thinking skills combined with social skills (e.g. sharing and communicating)
                -Co-operative learning
                - Self-evaluation and self-monitoring
                - Teacher becomes a facilitator

We cannot allow society to apply it’s zombiefication of adults to children in schools.  So let’s reclaim our brains and drop the emphasis on teaching and put the emphasis back on learning.

Effective Leaders Don't Grow On Trees

If we can all agree that strong leadership leads to positive outcomes for kids, then why aren't we doing more to recruit and TRAIN stronger leaders? 

Inspired by our discussion today about the influence of leadership on school culture, I left class curious about the obvious lack of strong leaders in Baltimore City Schools. In an effort to be transparent, I think it's worthwhile admitting that I believe that a school culture is shaped predominantly by a school's administration. Thus, as a first year teacher working in a poorly managed school, I blamed a lot of the confusion and chaos I encountered on a daily basis on my administration. As a result of the low achievement and frequent misbehaviors of my students, I often found myself thinking, "Is every city school like this?" And sadly, it seems like far too many are.

I choose to believe that the leaders recruited by the city are qualified, and are made ineffective by the constraints of their position. This is a plausible theory, as I'm sure even my own principal didn't enter her profession hoping to be ineffective. So, what factors contribute to qualified candidates transforming into ineffective school leaders? I offer two explanations:

1. The constraints placed on administration from central office make them ineffective, as they have very little power, and are often overwhelmed by responsibilities.
and/or
2. Administrators are inadequately prepared and supported, thus they are ineffective because they don't have the tools and skills necessary to lead a struggling school.

Perhaps it is a little bit of both, but out of curiosity, I decided to research the typical preparation programs that produce school leaders. I compared JHU's Administrative Certification Program (certifies  administrators to work in any school district) to KIPP's Miles Family Fellowship/Fisher Family Fellowship program (certifies administrators to found their own KIPP school).

JHU requires students to complete 18 credits of coursework, and a guided internship. The internship is described as, "a capstone course; it is completed in the school where the student works and is performed under the careful supervision of an in-school mentor and a university supervisor." Essentially, you must complete night classes and assume a leadership role in the school you teach in. Sounds similar to the preparation we received to be "effective" teachers. (No offense, JHU!)


KIPP requires fellowship applicants to have at least 2 years of teaching experience, and have proof of high student achievement during those years in the classroom. Once accepted, Miles Family fellows are required to spend at least two years in a KIPP school; one year teaching in a KIPP classroom, another spending 10-week residences at several KIPP schools throughout the course of a year. For both fellowships, overwhelming amounts of PD (link below), one on one leadership coaching, school design plans, AND graduate work are required to be approved to be a KIPP principal. 


Why the difference? As we discussed, KIPP's success as a charter is largely due to the strong leadership that KIPP's administration provides to the school community. The positive school culture that exists within the walls of a KIPP school is replicable, but only if leaders are properly prepared to replicate it. I am not recommending that every school leader in the nation complete the KIPP program, but it makes sense why our school leaders are failing. We know from experience that 18 credits (we completed 18 credits this year) and experience aren't enough to make us into transformative educators. Yet, we expect our leaders to be transformative, despite their lack of preparation.

Clearly, we must do more to prepare leaders for the challenges they will face in a failing school system. When will we prioritize the expertise of our leaders, knowing that their expertise will affect thousands of staff members, and hundreds of thousands of students?

JHU Administration Program

KIPP Fellowships

What Do Schools NEED?

“A ship isn’t just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, you know. That’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is . . . what a ship really is . . . is freedom.”  - Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

     Ask most people what a school is and you’ll likely get the most straightforward of answers: a school is a place where students learn. But when the question turns to what a school needs, the answer becomes a bit trickier.

    

     On the surface, this answer seems simple too: schools need teachers, administrators, students, supplies, and a place to house them all, right? But try to nail down the specifics, and you’ll find yourself mired in age-old debates. How many students per school? How many students per class? How many teachers per class? How many teachers for each subject? How many subjects for each grade? The logistical questions go on and on.

      

      And that’s not even mentioning supplies. A visitor to a public school in Baltimore city would likely come away with a very different understanding of what supplies are necessary than would a visitor to a private school in Howard county. Should teachers be given books? Paper? Technology in their rooms? And how about the students – should they have computers? iPads? Walk into certain classrooms and you might conclude that all students must have video recording equipment. Walk into others and paper and pencils become optional.

      Just what is it that makes a classroom a classroom and a school a school? This is the very question that Baltimore city officials have attempted to face with their release today of a report identifying building upgrades required for the city’s schools. According to the “Jacobs Report” (as reported in the Baltimore Sun), Baltimore city’s 150 school buildings require approximately $2.4 billion in infrastructure improvements to bring them up to basic operating capacity.

      Implicit in the report is the understanding that that large a gap cannot possibly be overcome immediately. The huge deficit, combined with the school system’s approximately 26,000 unfilled classroom seats this past year, will possibly lead, according to school officials, to either closing or rebuilding of up to one third of the city’s schools.

      But the issue goes deeper than just walls that need repainting. “The bottom line for me is not about the condition of the schools,” said CEO Dr. Andres Alonso. “The bottom line is what kind of settings are we going to need to have in order to give our students the best possible chance to succeed?” With so much to be fixed, what should city officials be concentrating on? What exactly is it that schools need?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ci-jacobs-report-release-20120626,0,3965598.story

The K-8 Debate Continues...

In class on Thursday, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of K-8 schools vs. middle schools. Apparently, this is a hot-button topic because a bunch of experts The New York Times asked also wanted to add their two cents.

Although there are several reputable people speaking for and against middle schools, I'd like to draw your attention to David L. Brewer III, the former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"The challenge of educating children in high poverty and high crime areas, however, is too complex to be solved by a single school configuration model. Indeed, it takes a community, not just a school, to address these issues. The Tangelo Park Program in Orlando, Fla., is a community-based initiative that promotes civic commitment by public and private entities. It offers preschool, parenting classes, full college scholarships and vocational or technical opportunities for parents with children in school. The results are compelling..."

This model is similar to the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada's brainchild featured in Whatever it Takes. I believe this type of community program provides the best of both worlds. Originally, K-8 schools wanted to be able to provide a sense of family for students in underserved areas. The idea was that teachers would get to know the students over the course of their education, and teachers would be able to provide the support longitudinally. However, the program Mr. Brewer describes is exactly that. It offers after school programming, extracurricular activities, and career options for its students and parents. I agree with this model of educating the whole child, family and all...not just the child for the time he or she is enrolled in a school that they might be outgrowing. Schools should provide programs that grow with their students, not vice versa.

Although the answer to the Middle School Conundrum might not be as simple as a school change, school districts should consider what, exactly they are offering their middle school students and families as they transition into high school and beyond.

Follow NY and Make Evaluations Public?

Earlier this week, the New York State Legislature passed a bill that will make teacher evaluations public information but keep teachers' names private. This is a new step towards holding teachers accountable for their performance by the public. As a large state such as New York begins to implement this reform, other states might follow. With this information available, the questions are: Who will use it? And what will it change?

It could be a useful indication of a school's success if parents could access teacher evaluations at a school, even without names. The parents who will access this information will first have to know that it exists. This will of course depend on how public access to the evaluations is publicized, and most likely the information will be online so those interested in reading the evaluations will need access to the Internet. What this all means is that less-informed parents, usually parents of the neediest children, will not be the primary readers of these evaluations.

If states and districts across the country begin to open their evaluation systems up to this scrutiny by the public, it will be important to make sure that the teacher evaluation process itself is improved so that those who end up accessing the evaluations see an accurate picture of the teacher. In Baltimore City, the teachers and administrators are still struggling to understand how to implement a new evaluation system, and as with any system there are learning curves and personal politics that surround the implementation. The new framework might help teachers improve their craft and view the evaluations in a less critical way, but the movement to publicize the information might reintroduce a punitive feeling.

It is unlikely that publicizing my effectiveness against the Baltimore City rubric is going to make me a more effective teacher. It is likely that I am going to feel that my abilities as a teacher are not fully represented in that medium and it is unfair, whether my name is attached to it or not, that the public display of my evaluation reflects my practice to someone who has probably never met me. Furthermore, parents who have other options of schools for their children might see the evaluations as a way to pursue those options. But for parents who do not know how to transfer their student, or are unable to transfer their child, will not experience that same interest in accessing the evaluations - because the results will not mean that choosing another teacher is even a possibility.

Evaluations are something that an administrator, as an instructional leader, should conduct to help teachers improve their craft. Similar to an annual review at a company, or even other parts of the public sector, it is about professional growth, and the qualitative evaluation material should remain between teacher and supervisor.

"Bloomberg: NY teacher evaluations should be public"
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP078f1fb1da0247fb94af47b9c48f1526.html

Student Debt Crisis

In March 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that student loans in the U.S. hit $1 trillion.  The response spurred a series of news discussions about the negative effects of debt for what has been nicknamed the ‘student debt crisis.’ (New York Times “Degree of Debts”, Atlantic “The Student Debt Crisis We Don't Talk About”, CNBC “Price of Admission: America’s College Debt Crisis").

 In Congress, the debate has centered around student loan interest rates.  At the end of this month (June 2012), the interest rate on Stafford federal student loans will expire to resume an increased rate of 6.8%.  The rate, currently 3.4%, had been initially set as a temporary reduced rate in 2007 and was intended to resume the higher rate 6.8% in 2011 (extended to begin July 1, 2012).  Congress has been in a tumult of political foreplay and impasse about interest rates for federal student loans.  Just yesterday, President Obama has reportedly placed new pressure on Congress to keep student loans at a low interest rate.

 All of this points to a bigger question of the purpose and viability of a college education.  What is the purpose of a college degree?  Should students go straight into the workforce after high school or should they attempt postsecondary education no matter the costs?  Certainly these issues are not new.  What has changed though is the economic environment that students are now faced with, and the associated pressures of debt, unemployment and/or partial employment.  Not to mention the increase in students not graduating or taking longer to graduate and thereby accruing more debt.  The stakes in other words are much higher.      

 Given this heightened context of economic crisis, now translated into student crisis, what can we say about the financial aspects of a college education?  Is it worthwhile for a student to take on this much debt?  Will what the student losses be recouped in income and more intangibles, such as cultural capital and socio-economic standing?  Re Naush’s post yesterday, does this change how we approach public versus private education?

Finally, what is the purpose of a college education?   As educators, how does this impact the way we teach and approach college preparation?

 

Other Links:

 Wall Street Journal statistics on unemployment, college educated, and student loans:  http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/search/student%20debt/?s=student+debt 

 

Economist Gary Becker’s discussion on student debt: 

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2012/05/is-student-debt-too-great-becker.html

National Journal Education Experts Blog discuss debt: 

http://education.nationaljournal.com/2012/06/unpacking-1-trillion.php#comments

Challenge to Care in Charm City:  previous blog posts have made some insightful discussion points and sources about the question of student debt:   http://bmorenotless.blogspot.com/2012/03/are-baltimore-students-degreeless-in.html

Baltimore Sun:  More Baltimore Graduate Attend 2 Year College Where They are Less Likely to Earn Degree

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-ci-college-completion-report-20110907,0,7483796.story

Public v. Private Sector Education

Is a high-quality education something that all Americans deserve? If so, is the public or private sector better equipped to deliver this education? This topic is front and center in the national discourse on education right now and Diane Ravitch commented on this topic in a recent blog post. The post was called "The Miseducation of Mitt Romney" and it derides Romney's plan to turn education over to the private sector. The post itself raises a number of salient points about the public v. private sector education debate and there are two specific points I would like to elaborate on.

Above all, one of the major points in her post was about school vouchers. Proponents of privatizing education love to point to the effectiveness of school vouchers. However, Ravitch points out that:

A Congressionally-mandated evaluation of the D.C. program found that students with vouchers made no gains in either reading or math. As the report stated, “There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP [Opportunity Scholarship Program] affected student achievement.”

This data seems incredibly relevant, especially since it shows that students with vouchers made no gains in either reading or math. If the government is paying students to go to private schools (which could be for-profit, religious, or run by some other type of organization) that are not enhancing student achievement, why should we support a voucher system? Although this report is only a snapshot of data on one particular voucher program, it still raises a cautionary flag about the overall efficacy of vouchers. The efficacy of voucher programs need to be proven before hailing them as a panacea to correct problems within our current educational system.

The other major point that is incredibly important is how bipartisan these so-called "solutions" have become. As Ravitch explained:

Apart from vouchers and the slap at teacher certification, Obama’s Race to the Top program for schools promotes virtually everything Romney proposes—charters, competition, accountability, evaluating teachers by student test scores. If anything, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been as outspoken on behalf of charters and test-based accountability as Mitt Romney. And, like Romney, Duncan has disdained the issue of reducing the number of students per teacher.

If there is a growing bipartisan political consensus on the policies that should be in place to fix our educational system, what can opponents of these policies do? Some of these policies - namely the voucher system, charters, tying teacher evaluations to student performance - used to be extremely controversial. But because of this growing bipartisan consensus, these once controversial ideas have been mainstreamed and opponents of these ideas have been isolated and marginalized. This is extremely troubling to me as I see this as part of a broader push towards privatization in all sectors of the economy. Seeing as what privatization has done in other areas (e.g. military contractors in Iraq, parts of the prison system, parking meters in Chicago and New York, etc.), I maintain a healthy skepticism about the reliability - and intentions - of privatization in general. If privatization can really bring about better education for students in America, then this would be a great idea. However, I don't think it is wise to go down this path with as much chutzpah as our current political class is doing. We should be very wary of going down the path of privatization given its track-record in general and for educational reform in particular. This is especially relevant since even more controversial ideas - such as abolishing teacher tenure and unions - are also slowly being mainstreamed. Overall, the push towards privatization seems inexorable even though the true costs of this push are currently unknown.

On some level, we as corps members implicitly believe in TFA's mantra that "One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education." Whether these children actually get that excellent education depends a lot on the current debate over public v. private sector education.

The Miseducation of Mitt Romney, The New York Review of Books, 6-5-12, Diane Ravitch http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/05/miseducation-mitt-romney/

Effective Instruction

Earlier today (06/19/2012), the Baltimore Sun featured an article about the School Effectiveness Review (SER) process that Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPSS) is using to evaluate schools. Essentially Baltimore City contracted a third-party to come into BCPSS schools and using a pretty extensive rubric, evaluate the schools on a variety of measures. The Sun article focused primarily on measures regarding instruction, with the first round of SERs finding that 40 percent of schools were "not effective." With a large focus being put on instruction in Baltimore City by CEO Andres Alonso and CAO Sonja Santelises, as seen by the development of the instructional framework, these findings shine some light on the need for effective teachers.

In my mind, effective instruction is a trait teachers develop over years of being in the classroom. It takes trial and error, celebrating successes and learning from failures (a lot of them). To develop your practices as a teacher to be consistently effective takes time. Baltimore City is pushing to bring in young and talented individuals to teach and while that youthful energy is always necessary, these teachers are not going to be effective consistently for their first couple of years. It is going to take time to train these individuals to be effective instructors. During that time period it can only be expected that many teachers, and schools, will be rated as not effective. I know that many of the turnaround schools are staffed with a majority of teachers who have been teaching for less than 5 years. Of course there are some fantastic teachers who have not been teaching very long, but they are rare. Also, many teachers are leaving the profession from being simply burnt out. Many teachers leave the profession before they fully develop their skills. The time it takes to develop those skills is taxing and it is unfortunate that people burn out before they realize the fruits of their labour.


A quick note. My school was administered a SER this past May. The observers came into my classroom for a 20 minute segment of my 90 minute class, took some notes, and then left. They did this for all teachers, sans a couple whom they observed twice. While the observers did hold focus groups with students and staff and spent some time just observing the school, to base a review of a teacher on a 20 minute segment may not be the best method to determine if they are effective or not. If the observers do not know the context of the lesson in terms of the overall unit, or whether the lesson was a review lesson, or any of these other factors that determine the function of a specific lesson, then their ratings may not accurately reflect what the teacher is doing.

While the 40 percent figure given seems startling, we should not jump to conclusions just yet. Many of our teachers are not effective because they just have not had the time to develop effective teaching practices. Also, effective teacher instruction is being heavily linked to initiatives such as the adoption of the Common Core standards, and that will add another dimension to this debate of standards (and their assessments) as they relate to how teachers are evaluated. It may all seem a big mess but I do hope that the SER process will help to determine practices that work better than others so that struggling schools can be given opportunities to support their teachers to eventually be highly effective teachers.

The article can be found here: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-06-18/news/bs-md-ci-school-effectiveness-reviews-20120618_1_city-school-evaluations-sonja-santelises

"Worry About Yourself," not the College-Bound Immigrant Population

It is disheartening to read the perspectives of opponents to the Maryland Dream Act; I find my teacher voice echoing the mantra of my classroom: "Worry about yourself."

In a city where the population of immigrant students and families is growing exponentially, it seems unfair to deny illegal immigrant students the in-state tuition breaks their peers receive for identical requirements. The law would allow children of Maryland residents who lack official citizenship documents to receive the same in-state tuition rate their fellow Maryland resident peers receive, given they have attended a Maryland high school for three years and can prove that their parents filed tax returns to the state. 

As an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher, I spend my days working with students who come from very diverse life situations. Regardless of the reason for their family's immigration from their home country, and regardless of whether or not that move was legal, I am unable to place any responsibility or blame on my ESOL students for their immigrant status. In fact, the very label 'immigrant' is perhaps the last on my list of characteristics for these students. My students are capable, intelligent, cultured, and bilingual. Their family's legal status has no bearing on that reality. The majority of my Latino ESOL students were born in the United States; the decision to immigrate was made perhaps while they were still a twinkle in their mother's eye. 

It is for this reason I urge the opponents of the Dream Act to worry about themselves. Children of immigrant families who attend high school in this state and whose parents pay taxes deserve the same tuition break as everyone else who lives in the state. There is not difference between these students and their peers (except, perhaps, the cultured, intelligent, and bilingual part).

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-dream-act-appeal-20120612,0,6701916.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-in-state-results-20110707,0,6104123.story?page=1

More KoolAid Please!

In the education reform debate, Teach for America (TFA) chooses to swoop in with not reform, but transformation.   The question is, who is this transformation for?  

"Teach For America is growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education."

While this mission seems brilliant in theory, I cannot help but see its connection to (white) Western imperialism.  It is no surprise that TFA hires predominantly white, middle to upper class, recent college graduates to spread a very specific message about how education needs to be to predominantly poor students of color.  Most corps members share little to no background or life experience with their students or colleagues, yet they are charged with the duty of "transforming" education, something most are ill prepared to do.

The brutal reality is that TFA teachers are not effective.  My MTLD (Manager of Teacher Learning and Development) gave me the figures for the Baltimore Corps, which has higher statistics than the national average.  Only a womping 3% of first year teachers make a transformational impact, and after their second year only 7% can be considered transformational.  That's six people out of the Baltimore corps.  Yet, TFA is looked at as being an answer to education.

Most TFA teachers leave after their two year commitment, feeling exhausted, yet pleased that they helped out a community of poor, troubled students.  However, the reality is that unless those teachers leaving were a part of that 7%, their students stayed at the same academic level or in some cases, worse.

If we really want to have transformation, we need to focus on training career teachers, rather than idealistic college grads that use TFA as a means of beefing up their resume.  This gives our students a chance to have a teacher that will be more than just novice, someone who will really stick around to see them through.  As it stand now, TFA's infrastructure isn't helping our kids, it's just making a bunch of predominantly white, middle-class kids feel good about serving a community that isn't theirs, while reaping the professional benefits associated with this "charitable" deed.  

And while I am not trying to discount the experience of any corps member, I think it is crucial to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and message that TFA is sending.  Anyone who has been to any of TFA's diversity sessions should know that TFA has an issue acknowledging the privilege that exists, and until that happens, the organization will continue to be inherently flawed.  Perhaps the transformation TFA so desperately seeks needs to first be realized within themselves.

http://www.teachforamerica.org/our-mission

**I readily acknowledge that there are many corps members from a variety of backgrounds and identities.  I wrote this blog to highlight social implications and theory to the general trend I see with the heavy recruitment of white corps members in TFA.  I by no means am trying to discount the fact that there are people who are doing great work and joined TFA to truly make an impact.